Bengal: Minister confronted as Annapurna protests spread across state

West Bengal minister Agnimitra Paul was forced to step out of a meeting at the Paschim Medinipur district magistrate's office on Friday, 21 August after a group of women protesting over unpaid Annapurna Yojana funds confronted her. The disruption reflected growing frustration among beneficiaries across the state, who say they have completed the required formalities but are still waiting for the promised Rs 3,000.

Paul was attending a meeting when the women entered the ground floor of the administrative building. The scheduled meeting, at around 2.30 pm, had to be interrupted as the protesters demanded answers. District magistrate Bijin Krishna and local MLA Shankar Guchhait also arrived as the situation grew tense.

Trying to calm the women, Paul said, "Please give it some time; it has only been 100 days." As the noise increased, she appealed, "Speak softly; only then will I be able to hear you." She said she had come out because she wanted to find a solution and asked, "I am looking into why the names were rejected during verification. Did you receive the money in June or July?" The women responded together, "We haven't received it for even a single month."

After the meeting, Paul said some elements of the former ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) were allegedly behind the unrest over the Annapurna scheme. Urging beneficiaries to remain patient, she said, "My mothers and sisters need to have a little patience. If applications from two crore women have been received, it will take some time to upload them. I'm sorry to say that many Trinamool people are sitting inside and creating trouble. I'm informing the chief minister about this as well."

The response had a familiar ring to it: faced with a growing protest over a BJP flagship promise, the BJP appeared to reach for its old Bengal playbook of blaming the TMC. But the protests themselves suggest that the immediate grievance is less about party politics than about beneficiaries waiting for money they say they were promised.

The confrontation in Midnapore was only one part of a much larger wave of anger.

On Friday itself, hundreds of women in Birati in North 24 Parganas district blocked railway tracks to protest non-payment. A Sealdah-bound down local from Hasnabad stopped at around 1.35 pm, while other trains were held up at different stations. Railway police struggled to control the situation, and arguments reportedly broke out between passengers and protesters.

The women said they had submitted documents, undergone verification and seen their applications marked 'approved', yet no money had reached their accounts. Their anger grew after the government's stated deadline for payment passed. Their demand was straightforward: "If eligible beneficiaries are to receive the money, everyone should get it simultaneously."

The unrest was not confined to Birati. Protests were reported at Habra, where women sarcastically suggested that Annapurna Yojana be renamed the "has it arrived or not?" scheme. Demonstrations also took place at Phulbagan and Behala Chowrasta in Kolkata, with the latter causing traffic congestion.

In Bankura, women protested at the Bishnupur SDO office and blocked the road outside it. At the Barjora BDO office, another demonstration led to a blockade of the Bankura-Durgapur state highway. The protesters warned of a "larger movement" if their money was not released soon.

In Malda, women gathered at Harishchandrapur-I Block office and said that, despite submitting forms and proving their eligibility, the promised Rs 3,000 had not been credited. At English Bazar municipality, women complained of long queues and repeated visits. Some questioned why having three rooms was allegedly being treated as grounds for exclusion. "Are all the members of a family of eight or ten expected to live in one room?" they asked.

Similar complaints have emerged from Asansol, Purulia, Madhyamgram, Ashoknagar-Kalyangarh, Bongaon, Hooghly, Balurghat, Nadia, Howrah, South 24 Parganas and several parts of north Bengal. Road and railway blockades have been reported from places including Raghunathpur, Madhyamgram, Dhupguri, Maynaguri, Jalpaiguri, Dantan, Jhargram and Kalna.

The scale of the protests suggests that this is no longer merely a question of delayed payments. For many women, it is a question of trust. They say they have filled in forms, submitted documents and undergone verification, only to be left without either the promised money or a clear explanation.

The government has opened an online portal for applicants to check their status and has urged those who have not received the funds to lodge complaints. But, as the confrontation with Paul showed on Friday, beneficiaries are demanding more than instructions to submit another complaint. They want their promised money paid without being made to "run from one office to another".